22/04/2013 - GOD WILL REDEEM YOU

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The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Psalm 34.22

I would like to deliver some good news to God’s servants who have fallen into sin: your fall will not last forever, for he promised to rescue you from the hands of the devil. Wouldn’t be nice if Christians never gave in to temptation?

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, lost his rights because he went up to his father’s bed (Genesis 49.3-4). Similarly, many Christians will lose their inheritance because they went up to the bed of a brother in faith or of other people.

Sadly, some servants of the Lord do give in to temptation and sin. But the apostle Paul had a different attitude: he fought the good fight, finished the race and kept the faith, so the crown of justice was laid up for him (2 Timothy 4.7-8). You must continue fighting against temptation, because God’s plan is that we keep our heads up, praising the Lord, who made us part of the Body of Christ.

The Lord does not want to lose you to the evil one. He re-created you in Christ for the good works, which God prepared in advance for you to walk in them. When God sees his child in error, his heart is saddened and the Holy Spirit moves into action. In Psalm 34.22, the verb used is redeem, which means to save from a state of sinfulness and its consequences. But many children of God do not know that the Lord cares about them.

Lot’s rescue, carried out by Abram and 318 servants who were born in his own house (Genesis 14.12-14), is the same that God does for us when we are entrapped by the devil. He goes after his lost sheep until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing (Luke 15.4-5). If necessary, the Lord will fight a lion or a bear to rescue his sheep from its mouth, because he does not want to lose any of those who belong to him.

The secret is to trust in the Lord even if you have fallen into sin. He will not pretend that you have not sinned and that the sin is not separating you from him, but, in a loving manner, he will show you that it is not worth it to remain in error. The sadness he makes you feel for having violated his commands is just a sample of how you will feel during all eternity, if you do not repent and continue lost.

Condemnation is not for those who have been redeemed; it is for the wicked, those who have no fear of the Lord. He who resists the voice of the Holy Spirit will cry desperately one day, but it will be too late. He who fell into the devil’s trap must take advantage of God’s offer and seek his forgiveness immediately, because it is not possible to live far from our Father today or tomorrow.

Those who are redeemed will come to Zion, will be reconciled with God. Those who continue coming to the house of the Lord but no longer feel his presence have not been rescued yet, so they are in danger. The church must continuously pray for them, because they need to be rescued from the one who is enslaving them.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares